Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets PDF
Preview Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets
Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets Bengt Furåker Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets Also by Bengt Furaker LABOUR MARKET REGIMES AND PATTERNS OF FLEXIBILITY: A Canada-Sweden Comparison (with Axel van den Berg & Lei{ Johansson) POST-INDUSTRIAL LABOUR MARKETS: Profiles of North America and Scandinavia (with Thomas P. Boje) Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets By Bengt Furaker * © Bengt Furaker 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-9151-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1 T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-54282-6 ISBN 978-0-230-50246-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230502468 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Furaker, Bengt, 1943- Sociological perspectives on labor markets I Bengt Furaker. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978 1-4039-9151-5 (cloth) 1. Labor market. 2. Labor supply. 3. Industrial relations. 4. Labor-Social aspects. 5. Industrial sociology. I. Title. HDS706.F87 2005 306.3'6'01-dc22 2005051006 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 OS Transferred to Digital Printing 20 II Contents List of Tables ix Preface and Acknowledgments X 1. Introduction 1 Theory and concepts as tools 2 Theoretical outlook 3 The structure of the book 9 2. Some Concepts with Which to Start 13 The labor market: hiring labor power 14 Three aspects of labor power 15 The commodity status of labor power 17 Jobs and occupations 20 The employment contract 23 Capitalist and non-capitalist labor markets 25 The 'marketness' of labor markets 26 Capitalist labor markets 27 Modes, relations, and forces of production 28 Public sector employment 31 The issue of a state mode ofp roduction 31 Other non-capitalist sectors 33 Commodification and decommodification 35 3. Labor Market Divisions 39 Spatial divisions 40 Occupations, sectors, and segments 44 Occupational divisions 44 The significance of sector 45 Labor market segments 48 Class divisions 52 The classics 54 Two recent accounts 57 Where does this take us? 62 Gender and other divisions 64 4. Actors and Interactions 67 Employers and jobseekers 68 Processes of selection 69 Discrimination and selection 72 v vi Contents Employers and workers 73 The principal-agent perspective 73 Work organization and work orientation 76 Work control and reactions to it 79 Direction and the indeterminacy of jobs 80 Work control 81 Sanctions 84 Collective organizations and action 86 The formation of a workers' collective 87 Collective action and the role of unions 88 Monopolization 92 The state 93 Theoretical considerations 93 State intervention in the labor market 96 5. The Commodity Status of Labor Power 99 The functioning of the economy 100 Processes in the labor market 100 Labor power's use value 101 Avoiding employment 104 The development of self-employment 106 Family-related mechanisms 107 The role of the state 109 Social insurance 110 Labor market policy 113 Workfare 116 The state as employer 118 A complex set of mechanisms 119 6. Age of Services, Information, and Globalization 122 The expansion of the service sector 123 The service concept 124 Post-industrial theory and services 125 The age of information and knowledge 127 The concepts of information and knowledge 127 Post-industrial theory and knowledge 128 The idea of post-capitalism 132 Informational society 133 Globalization and internationalization 138 Post-industrial theory and globalization/internationalization 138 Conceptual considerations 141 Globalization, information technology, and competition 144 New times, new labor market relations? 149 Changes in the composition of jobs and jobholders 149 Changes in the balance ofp ower 151 Contents vii 7. The Individual-Collective Aspect of Employment Relationships 154 De-collectivization 155 Explaining the decline in union density 157 The individualization thesis 160 The labor market as motor of individualization 163 Being 'entrepreneur of the self' 165 The individualization thesis under scrutiny 166 Historical comparisons 167 The class issue 168 Collectivistic and individualistic values 170 The question of social integration 171 The social dimension of employment relationships 173 Work as collective effort 173 Social comparisons 176 The drive toward professionalization 178 Pulling together 180 8. Labor Market Flexibility 183 The concept of labor market flexibility 184 Potential and actual adjustment 185 A conceptual scheme 187 Units of analysis 188 Types of flexibility 189 Issues of flexibility 191 Employment flexibility 191 Temporary work agencies 195 Work process flexibility 196 Work tasks 196 Work intensity 198 Working time flexibility 198 Hours worked 199 Work schedules 199 Workplace or spatial flexibility 200 Wage flexibility 201 Recruitment 201 Performance 202 Flexibility mixes and conflicting interests 202 9. Unemployment, Marginalization, and Employment Prospects 205 Unemployment and marginalization 206 Issues of unemployment and marginalization 211 The notions of 'two-third society' and 'Brazilianization' 213 The end of wage-work? 217 The proposal of a citizenship income 221 Employment prospects 225 viii Contents 10. Labor Market Continuity and Change 228 Three types of change 231 Accounting for continuity and change 232 Considering continuity 232 Considering change as to jobs and jobholders 235 Considering change in power relations 236 Too much of 'end-of' theses 238 References 241 Index 256 List of Tables Table 2.1 Some characteristics of labor market sectors 35 Table 5.1 Labor market policy related to unemployment and 115 labor shortage Table 8.1 Relationships between flexibility, inflexibility, stability, 188 and instability ix
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